The present invention discloses a system by which a payor can submit checking account information to initiate a direct debit from his or her checking account during a telephone conversation with a customer service representative or via a computer terminal or other telecommunication devices. In order to perform the transaction, the system needs to gather two key pieces of information concerning the payor's checking account, the bank's routing/transit number (hereinafter "routing number") and the checking account number.
While most people know his or her checking account number, very few know his or her bank's routing number. However, this information is printed on every check within a checkbook. This information, along with the individual's check number, comprises the check's MICR Line.
The MICR line was developed to allow high speed, computer controlled processing of checks by banks. Banks utilize the magnetic ink characters printed on checks to decode and read the information printed on the checks in order to automatically process checks by standard sorting machines. The characters in the check's MICR line identify the payor's bank and Federal Reserve Bank District in which it is located, the payor's checking account number and the check's serial number. The actual position of the routing number, account number, and check number can vary from check to check, depending on the particular bank. According to the American Bankers Association (ABA) regulations for the content and placement of MICR Lines on checks, there are six possible combinations of these three numbers. The mechanical check reading devices that banks use to read checks rely on special symbols (the "routing" and "onus" symbols) to identify the three pieces of information in the MICR line. The routing symbols identifies the particular banking institution. The onus field contains the payor's account number and the number of the particular check. Since the information in these fields is printed in magnetic ink, when a check is manually inserted into a check reading device, the magnetic ink causes electronic current pulses in a circuit to be detected when "read" by a proper electronic read head.
While it is easy for a payor to read the actual numbers that are present in the MICR line, it is considerably more difficult to describe a routing or onus symbol through a telephone conversation. Unfortunately, MICR line information is not easily decipherable by those not educated in the intricacies of ABA regulations.
Before the creation of this invention, it was necessary to train representatives to "talk the payor through" the manual identification of the individual components of the MICR line. This older process required additional training for representatives and resulted in a high error rate in the proper identification of routing and checking account numbers. The present invention allows validation of the payor's account information to be performed on-line, while the representative is communicating with the payor. If the system detects an error during the on-line process, new information may be entered before the debit transaction is initiated. For those payors who do know his or her routing and account numbers, the process allows the direct entry of such information.